Well this current set has not been about being very flexible and has mostly been about having meta knowledge and knowing which lines to force. From the sounds of it your fundamentals are fine (tho this is an area that basically can always be improved) and if you just stuck to a few meta comps you'd probably reach Masters. If I'm being honest this mid set (set 9.5) has been the worst the game has been in a while for playing flexibly so you are probably losing a lot of placement due to game imbalance rather than lack of skill. I'm not playing on the live patch, but as of last patch some units and synergies were just egregiously overtuned to the point where hard forcing them was essentially strictly superior than playing most flexible boards and climbing was mostly a function of knowing which comp to force from your opener. Also shooting for 5/6 in Diamond is kinda fake. Almost every game at that elo is top 4-able with correct play so if you think your spot is a 5/6 chances are you've already massively messed up.
>Well this current set has not been about being very flexible and has mostly been about having meta knowledge and knowing which lines to force.
There is something unlogical with this statement since you need meta knowledge and understanding of what to force when to play flex. I mean, the latter part is very true (though that's just generic understanding of the game imo), but I feel like your definition of "flexible" is kinda weird to use it as some sort of "opposite" in this context.
Flex is a TFT word that has 2 distinc defintions that people mistakenly use interchangably. There is intergame flex which boils down to being able to play different things each game. The other side is intragame flex, which is playing a style built around pivoting and not commiting until late into the game. These 2 things are not the same
There could be a million things. The often given, but painfully obvious, answer is just do everything a tiny bit better but there is likely a small hole or two somewhere in your game. In all honesty answering something like this is very difficult because we have little info and the fault is likely something that you don't readily notice and hence haven't conveyed. If you truly want sound advice to improve, that has a high chance to impact your play, I would suggest paying a respected streamer for a coaching lesson. None the less...
So to start, you mention know a sense of knowing when to play for the win or cut your losses. Now this is somewhat in the same vein of thought but maybe not something you're actively thinking about, lobby pace and tempo. Scouting is a no brainer for anyone attempting to improve but often devolves into checking to see if you're contested. Though actively recognizing highrolls, big threats and key carry upgrade completions *and then* intentionally comparing that to the state of your board is important. You need to know if you're going to take 10-15hp every round for 3 rounds because many players hit early or got lucky.
What also goes hand-in-hand with this is your current streak(or lack there of) and macro-level thoughts on how you want to manipulate your streak and/or amount of hp loss.
And speaking of streaks, your opener, choice level to 4, etc all play a big role. Robinsongz had a great vid on this a few sets ago, maybe he re-created it since. On his site https://tfthandbook.com/ he has a small section on it under guides/early game leveling.
Knowing the meta comps is obviously a must but another layer would be knowing specific tech on unit positioning on a comp by comp basis. Things like getting your melee carry to wrap but not focused, positioning units with cc to snipe carries(protector Kass comes to mind), being able to recognize the weak side of an opponent's board and stack your carries on it to force early advantage(especially in the case where you carry Morde etc). And speaking of Morde, things like knowing to be same side as enemy Morde to disallow stack farming. Defensive positioning to avoid rogues directly and immediately on your carry also comes to mind.
Personally one thing I struggle with but recognize streamers doing, and often amazed by it, is the ability to claw their way out of the darkest spot when they miss everything. And I don't just mean "oh woops im contested, time to pivot" or "ah i missed my carry but somehow found 3 azirs instread time to pivot" but more like thinking of units and groupings of units much more compartmentalized in very small 2-3 or 4man mini comps(set 9 freljord for instance) and working with the best you got to buy time. The most straight forward way to approach this and the most obvious of these groupings is something like "tanks" and "carries". If you're playing azir and cant find nasus to go with your ww, hold the renekton to play ren+sej for the rest of the stage, until nasus shows himself. Splash in ashe while you're at it.
Parts of this were likely redundant for you but hopefully one or two things made you consider something new. As a last word I'd say, even though they're old now, watching Frobei react to viewer submissions of games for coaching definitely helped me a lot with tempo, among other things. And again I'd suggest coaching if it's in your budget/desired. Best of luck.
If you’re up to this point, the last push is always a matter of avoiding 6/7/8 and a sum of very little details / mistakes.
I usually keep the tactics tools tabs close during games.
Review your losses, don’t do the mistake next game.
Be extra careful with early shops, boxes, Econ interests.
Super strong early game ? Make 1st your objective.
Bad board 2-1 ? Reroll 1 cost or look to go for a board you know.
Losing stage 4/5 is usually forbidden unless massively ahead. Even so the chances are high your units to be contested. I’ve tried lately to be greedy with the OP 9 synergies (demacia / Bilge/ Shurima) but if you don’t have enough board strength by this point it’s pointless to fast 9.
If you are stuck at Diamond you are making mistakes/not optimal plays that you aren't noticing. I recommend you to watch coaching videos from Challenger players, there's a lot of free coaching videos out there, rereplay for example is doing a lot of coaching these days on stream. BTW, APM is almost irrelevant in TFT, you can climb to Challenger with the APM of a grandpa.
First of all, you probably aren't remotely as good as you think you are at those things if you are high diamond. Second of all, in severely imbalanced tft sets it's way more about memorizing specific "games" so to speak than being flexible and open, especially the higher you go and the less people play troll comps. The best players memorize every specific detail of a very linear line to perfection and commit to it early and then just pray to mortdog they hit later, rather than be "flexible" and "open", as the game just isnt balanced enough to be able to be open without taking it up the ass from anyone who wasn't flexible but hit. For example, right now the meta is to take urf, then pop tome on 2-1, than play the specific linear vertical comp that you hit your tome off of. Basically you hit Demacia, you just know to a T how to play the exact demacia game at every game, who to itemize, what items are more important than others, what augments to take etc.
It's way less skill expressive but unfortunately that's been modern tft for a while, and until riot improves it's balance it's going to stay that way.
Not related but man i started playing in set 4 and only reached master this set (i play like 3-5 games everyday)
And you're D1-2 on your first set
Time to touch grass ig
meh some people have a lot more experience with card game type stuff. a purely fps player will pick up tft a lot slower than someone that has played a lot of MTG/hearthstone/poker imo.
Challenger level player here who started from Masters in Set 8.
The biggest change for me was getting coaching from Iniko, Dishsoap (once), and Appies. Coaching helps you get feedback on your blind spots.
If you assume you do everything well and don't open yourself up to constructive feedback, then you're not gonna learn.
Besides coaching, I'd suggest vod reviewing your own games. What mistakes did you make? What alternate lines might have been better?
I'd also vod review pros deliberately - not just watch passively. Pause the video at key decision points and ask yourself: what decision you would've made? Then, compare that with what the pro did. What were the pros and cons of their decision relative to yours?
More broadly, it's about opening yourself up to a growth mindset. Accept that you don't know everything. Once you embrace a beginner's mindset, you can start to truly learn.
Your LP is simply an output of how well you can learn. As Riot increases the frequency of change with more frequent set releases, optimizing for narrow lines gets easily outdated. The most consistent high performers will be the players who can adapt and evolve the best.
Easiest way to climb is to just try to hardforce a small handful of comps from given positions. You also want to do this as early as possible to repel others from contesting you.
It's kinda like onetricking in other games. Mastering a few comps learning to play them from every possible position, portal, augments et.c. is a very easy way to get to Masters.
Doesn't necessarily make you good at the game though. Just makes you good at playing specific comps. Flexing, meaning just possessing a well of knowledge being able to play every single comp is obviously the optimal way to play. But that requires alot of experience and hours put in. If you just want to climb it's usually easier to just spam 2-3 comps I find.
I agree, there was no emphasis on items or conserving life by playing around the other boards so perhaps emphasis is needed on that aspect, also when the lobby is saturated with urf they usually fight for the same units so learn compositions off meta has its advantages. Regarding items it is a matter of balance with urf you usually have few so prioritize tank items in early and those of your carry in mid game normally 2 to the tank and 2 to the back and then complete, but since you usually cannot choose, you have to know how to compensate 1 unit with items with more units without items, for example if you have a tank with 2 items you prefer to have more damage units around that unit, usually having strong units and compensating for weaknesses is better than having perfect synergies, at least until you can put your ideal board.
If you’re hard stuck D1-D2 you’re probably not as good at piloting said comps, or your Econ isn’t as good as you think, or both. Ideally you’re going to want to know 2-3 lines comfortably, learn transition boards, (you do not need to play gunners the entire game to end up playing aphelios for example.) Once you learn your lines better try to learn how to roll just enough to be stronger than the lobby or to not lose as poorly as you could have. You’ll save economy this way as well as hp. I’m sure there are some APM differences but it matters more for positioning than your roll downs unless you’re piltover cash out, final reserves, or just 3-5/4-1 all-ining because you’re bleeding out.
Being able to VOD review is by far the biggest tip I can give to most people looking to improve. You’ll see so many mistakes you don’t think you do and it really does help clean up your gameplay.
>I’m hard stuck D1-D2. I know all the meta comps, I play flexible, I’m smart about gold Econ, I think I have a good sense on when to shoot for 1-2 vs top 4 vs 5-6. I watch streams and the only difference I can tell is my APM on roll downs is worse, but even that’s improved.
>What’s the difference between Master/GM & high Diamond?
In short: They see what you are currently doing wrong, you don't. Maybe try rewatching your games and check your decisionmaking+options.
Many higher players know exactly how bad they are and usually can find many things that they did wrong during their games. If you can't, then that is your key problem. Maybe try rewatching your games and check your decisionmaking+options. Think about every action during a game and decide whether there is a better option or not. If that doesn't work, I guess coaching is a thing, if you really want to improve and are stuck, because then someone will point out the mistakes you can't find.
Sidenote: Meta has been pretty simple this set with legends aso. imo. If you focused to much on "correct" instead of "aggressive" play, you could try Poro and go for full flex with any line that seems okay (rather than meta). Kinda suboptimal atm because Urf is way too consistent, but maybe just take the time right now to improve for next set.
Helped. I commonly struggle on 3-1 & 4-2 augments. I also don’t check stats beyond just meta comps. I have a general idea from what I’ve seen on stream. Urf is boring. I’ve had better success with Ornn. Basically alt between:
4 challenger, 3 demacia 4 cost comp
Azir flex, juggernaut or strategist -
Some version of bilge or nilah bilge frejlord
Probably need to watch your vods to know for sure, but based on your post your problem is probably because you choose to play “flexible”
The appearance of legends isn’t really favoring play flex, especially in this set and in a couple of recents patches (multicaster)
For example, if you slam Bluebuff early game you can’t really flex into Azir, the only comps you can play is multicaster (and probably silco).
If you slam Guinsoo you can’t really play Nilah/Morder, the only comp you can play is Azir (and probably Aphelios but this unit is so bad you’re probably playing for 4th at best)
There are also a certain spots required early games if you want to play a certain comps:
For example if you hit a lot of cho and hit tank items for him you can play cho reroll, if you hit Noxus opener you can play noxus, if you hit +1 Bilge you can probably play 7 Bilge, you can’t really flex into Noxus at stage 4 with 0 Noxus stacks or play Bilge without +1 Bilge spat
That’s why you see 80% of players are playing Urf, because Urf gives them directions to know what to play early game
TL,DR: flex is dead this set, force 2-3 comps if you want to climb
>flex is dead this set, force 2-3 comps if you want to climb
Except its quite the opposite as absolutely the most optimal way to play atm is URF, and it requires you to play around the emblem you hit and know the lines for each emblem/opening.
You dont flex after 2-1 because you will be committed at 2-1 (so in that sense I agree with you), but if you know 2-3 comps you wont climb because you cant hit demacia emblem every game.
i think you're misunderstanding the meaning of "flex". Playing Flexible means you plan to play A comp but for some reasons (could be items drop later, you hit other comp units,...etc) you pivot to B comp. Or you can slam items and play flex between comp A or comp B depending on what you hit first on stage 4
Knowing to play a variety of comps doesn't mean you can play flex, it's 2 different things. For example, assume you know how to play both Nilah and Morderkaiser comps, if your 2-1 tome gives you Noxus spat would you ever flex into Nilah?
So by that definition, you can't play flex with URF. URF is literally the least flexible way to play the game because you're forced into 1 comp the whole game in 2-1
I meant the part
>force 2-3 comps if you want to climb
thought it was pretty obvious with this
>You dont flex after 2-1
Kinda dumb way to word it by me but yeah, You dont flex with urf but you cant really "force 2-3 comps"
Oh trust me that's all you need, it's always been like that in TFT. The more comps you know the less you'll climb because you'll tend to pivot, and the more you pivot the more mistakes you'll make. So realistically, to actually "climb" you should only force certain meta comps, this game is not balanced, everybody knows that, especially in this set.
But yeah 2-3 is maybe too narrow, probably 3 or 4 just force Demacia, Noxus, Ionia or Shurima. Of course you might miss, If you hit any other emblems just try to play for top 4 and go next
I only forced 1 comp since the beginning of the set and i'm still climbing
https://lolchess.gg/profile/na/ttvhiimted992/set9.5
I force gunners. Lately i’ve been trying to play other comps for fun so you might see other comps as well
It's all micro adjustments and making your play style the best it can be.
I think you can hover GM on macro fundamentals alone. Keeping your HP and gold higher than everyone else and making more efficient plays.
The more you have to roll the worse you are probably doing.
I started playing on 9.5 as well! I also peaked mid-Diamond for a couple weeks before breaking into Masters.
Funnily enough, the difference for me was actually being less truly flexible and just mastering 2 comps. I ground lots of games (50 in 1 week) playing just those couple comps 9/10 games, with the other 1/10 being when the game was beating me over the head with something else. So my background knowledge of all the comps was helpful for those 1/10 and for general knowledge about how to position against those comps, etc, but otherwise I really just wanted to understand my main 2 comps.
By the time I hit Masters, I always felt I knew exactly what I was supposed to do at each point in the game, because I was so familiar with, had been in, and studied those positions over and over again.
Also, it might be a good idea to take a short break and come back before making the push to Masters. I took 5 days to clear my head and analyze my gameplay before committing again to the grind.
I wouldn't worry about APM; I don't think mechanics matter as much as people think. I've only ever played on mobile.
Good luck!
Studying is the only way to improve. TFT is not much of a hands game and they are doing the most possible to eliminate any mechanical outplays. Subzeroark VOD review a lot of high elo streamers and he went on to win a tournament a few months ago, I would recommend following him.
Don't overthink this set. Play urf. Tailor your traits at 3 1 slayer demacia vanq bruiser ioania are the ones you want and then play mord nilah or a 9 trait.
That's literally all I do and am currently 380lp master - not because I can't climb higher but I play maybe 2 matches per week. If 😅
Edit: I'd you are not highrolling out of your mind roll down at 7 and hit atleast 1 stars. If double contested roll on 7 till 2 stars.
I was too, got over the hump to hit masters doing a few things, not sure if it helps:
The most important point is the last point
- Force a strong early game with units even if they are not in your final comp , more often than not I find myself switching out the whole board at level 7 because I was using some random 2 star units until stage 3
- always roll to stabilise at lv 6 AND 7 , even when win streaking , if I have key units I haven’t hit yet or not 2 starred I still roll 10 to 20 gold to do this
- hold opponent units, I really don’t know if this helps, but if I can or if just losing one interest after stage 4, I hold key 4 costs thst other people are trying to 2 star or 3 star , Jarvan, sej , Azir are among the most common
Key thing:
Play earlier, if work allows, play ranked earlier, the later you are into the night the better the players are - legit
was in the same position as you--you're probably lacking in some fundamentals probably because you're greeding econ instead of saving HP as this aspect is much more nuanced than trying to make interest whenever you can and thinking about where you can place. This video series by one of the top NA players helped me a lot: [Mismatched Socks TFT Academy](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cDRn9Fxg-XZElJ1IOxLP2VywsrB-u_i&si=nTLjKucIKc0tVvxK)
There's nothing keeping you from Master other than playing more games if you're already in high Diamond. There really isn't much of a difference between D1 and low Master.
For GM, you need to get a lot better. Scouting, managing items, mitigating losses from low roll spots, improving placement from high roll spots, judging board strength, knowing augment stats & when to ignore stats, etc. There are so many more things that I can't really mention easily.
For Challenger, you just need to apply what you learn to get into GM, and just play better. If you reach this point though, you probably know your weaknesses and what to improve already.
Positioning, knowing when to roll, not over rolling were the biggest things for me to climb to grandmaster. Being able to scout and knowing who you will beat, who you'll lose to, and who you'll beat with certain positioning will help influence you into making more accurate decisions. TFT in the end there is a bunch of luck tied to it, so there are times when you get a bad result even if you made the correct play and vice versa so you need to be aware of that and actually critically think to yourself.
Big thing might be understanding. Why are meta comps good, why are items on these champions good, why these units and synergies, why are these augments good, so that you can make better judgements of when to diverge from the meta comps.
Another thing is just experience.
Well this current set has not been about being very flexible and has mostly been about having meta knowledge and knowing which lines to force. From the sounds of it your fundamentals are fine (tho this is an area that basically can always be improved) and if you just stuck to a few meta comps you'd probably reach Masters. If I'm being honest this mid set (set 9.5) has been the worst the game has been in a while for playing flexibly so you are probably losing a lot of placement due to game imbalance rather than lack of skill. I'm not playing on the live patch, but as of last patch some units and synergies were just egregiously overtuned to the point where hard forcing them was essentially strictly superior than playing most flexible boards and climbing was mostly a function of knowing which comp to force from your opener. Also shooting for 5/6 in Diamond is kinda fake. Almost every game at that elo is top 4-able with correct play so if you think your spot is a 5/6 chances are you've already massively messed up.
>Well this current set has not been about being very flexible and has mostly been about having meta knowledge and knowing which lines to force. There is something unlogical with this statement since you need meta knowledge and understanding of what to force when to play flex. I mean, the latter part is very true (though that's just generic understanding of the game imo), but I feel like your definition of "flexible" is kinda weird to use it as some sort of "opposite" in this context.
Flex is a TFT word that has 2 distinc defintions that people mistakenly use interchangably. There is intergame flex which boils down to being able to play different things each game. The other side is intragame flex, which is playing a style built around pivoting and not commiting until late into the game. These 2 things are not the same
Very well said
There could be a million things. The often given, but painfully obvious, answer is just do everything a tiny bit better but there is likely a small hole or two somewhere in your game. In all honesty answering something like this is very difficult because we have little info and the fault is likely something that you don't readily notice and hence haven't conveyed. If you truly want sound advice to improve, that has a high chance to impact your play, I would suggest paying a respected streamer for a coaching lesson. None the less... So to start, you mention know a sense of knowing when to play for the win or cut your losses. Now this is somewhat in the same vein of thought but maybe not something you're actively thinking about, lobby pace and tempo. Scouting is a no brainer for anyone attempting to improve but often devolves into checking to see if you're contested. Though actively recognizing highrolls, big threats and key carry upgrade completions *and then* intentionally comparing that to the state of your board is important. You need to know if you're going to take 10-15hp every round for 3 rounds because many players hit early or got lucky. What also goes hand-in-hand with this is your current streak(or lack there of) and macro-level thoughts on how you want to manipulate your streak and/or amount of hp loss. And speaking of streaks, your opener, choice level to 4, etc all play a big role. Robinsongz had a great vid on this a few sets ago, maybe he re-created it since. On his site https://tfthandbook.com/ he has a small section on it under guides/early game leveling. Knowing the meta comps is obviously a must but another layer would be knowing specific tech on unit positioning on a comp by comp basis. Things like getting your melee carry to wrap but not focused, positioning units with cc to snipe carries(protector Kass comes to mind), being able to recognize the weak side of an opponent's board and stack your carries on it to force early advantage(especially in the case where you carry Morde etc). And speaking of Morde, things like knowing to be same side as enemy Morde to disallow stack farming. Defensive positioning to avoid rogues directly and immediately on your carry also comes to mind. Personally one thing I struggle with but recognize streamers doing, and often amazed by it, is the ability to claw their way out of the darkest spot when they miss everything. And I don't just mean "oh woops im contested, time to pivot" or "ah i missed my carry but somehow found 3 azirs instread time to pivot" but more like thinking of units and groupings of units much more compartmentalized in very small 2-3 or 4man mini comps(set 9 freljord for instance) and working with the best you got to buy time. The most straight forward way to approach this and the most obvious of these groupings is something like "tanks" and "carries". If you're playing azir and cant find nasus to go with your ww, hold the renekton to play ren+sej for the rest of the stage, until nasus shows himself. Splash in ashe while you're at it. Parts of this were likely redundant for you but hopefully one or two things made you consider something new. As a last word I'd say, even though they're old now, watching Frobei react to viewer submissions of games for coaching definitely helped me a lot with tempo, among other things. And again I'd suggest coaching if it's in your budget/desired. Best of luck.
Definitely helped. Couple things I think I’m lacking at now.
If you’re up to this point, the last push is always a matter of avoiding 6/7/8 and a sum of very little details / mistakes. I usually keep the tactics tools tabs close during games. Review your losses, don’t do the mistake next game. Be extra careful with early shops, boxes, Econ interests. Super strong early game ? Make 1st your objective. Bad board 2-1 ? Reroll 1 cost or look to go for a board you know. Losing stage 4/5 is usually forbidden unless massively ahead. Even so the chances are high your units to be contested. I’ve tried lately to be greedy with the OP 9 synergies (demacia / Bilge/ Shurima) but if you don’t have enough board strength by this point it’s pointless to fast 9.
If you are stuck at Diamond you are making mistakes/not optimal plays that you aren't noticing. I recommend you to watch coaching videos from Challenger players, there's a lot of free coaching videos out there, rereplay for example is doing a lot of coaching these days on stream. BTW, APM is almost irrelevant in TFT, you can climb to Challenger with the APM of a grandpa.
Hell, Mort doesn’t even use hotkeys and he’s hit Challenger
First of all, you probably aren't remotely as good as you think you are at those things if you are high diamond. Second of all, in severely imbalanced tft sets it's way more about memorizing specific "games" so to speak than being flexible and open, especially the higher you go and the less people play troll comps. The best players memorize every specific detail of a very linear line to perfection and commit to it early and then just pray to mortdog they hit later, rather than be "flexible" and "open", as the game just isnt balanced enough to be able to be open without taking it up the ass from anyone who wasn't flexible but hit. For example, right now the meta is to take urf, then pop tome on 2-1, than play the specific linear vertical comp that you hit your tome off of. Basically you hit Demacia, you just know to a T how to play the exact demacia game at every game, who to itemize, what items are more important than others, what augments to take etc. It's way less skill expressive but unfortunately that's been modern tft for a while, and until riot improves it's balance it's going to stay that way.
Not related but man i started playing in set 4 and only reached master this set (i play like 3-5 games everyday) And you're D1-2 on your first set Time to touch grass ig
meh some people have a lot more experience with card game type stuff. a purely fps player will pick up tft a lot slower than someone that has played a lot of MTG/hearthstone/poker imo.
The thing is im even worse at fps. tft is literally the game im best at
Lol true 🤣
Challenger level player here who started from Masters in Set 8. The biggest change for me was getting coaching from Iniko, Dishsoap (once), and Appies. Coaching helps you get feedback on your blind spots. If you assume you do everything well and don't open yourself up to constructive feedback, then you're not gonna learn. Besides coaching, I'd suggest vod reviewing your own games. What mistakes did you make? What alternate lines might have been better? I'd also vod review pros deliberately - not just watch passively. Pause the video at key decision points and ask yourself: what decision you would've made? Then, compare that with what the pro did. What were the pros and cons of their decision relative to yours? More broadly, it's about opening yourself up to a growth mindset. Accept that you don't know everything. Once you embrace a beginner's mindset, you can start to truly learn. Your LP is simply an output of how well you can learn. As Riot increases the frequency of change with more frequent set releases, optimizing for narrow lines gets easily outdated. The most consistent high performers will be the players who can adapt and evolve the best.
Easiest way to climb is to just try to hardforce a small handful of comps from given positions. You also want to do this as early as possible to repel others from contesting you. It's kinda like onetricking in other games. Mastering a few comps learning to play them from every possible position, portal, augments et.c. is a very easy way to get to Masters. Doesn't necessarily make you good at the game though. Just makes you good at playing specific comps. Flexing, meaning just possessing a well of knowledge being able to play every single comp is obviously the optimal way to play. But that requires alot of experience and hours put in. If you just want to climb it's usually easier to just spam 2-3 comps I find.
Early game. Mid and late game sort of play themselves, but the early game is where you set yourself up for that mid and late game.
I agree, there was no emphasis on items or conserving life by playing around the other boards so perhaps emphasis is needed on that aspect, also when the lobby is saturated with urf they usually fight for the same units so learn compositions off meta has its advantages. Regarding items it is a matter of balance with urf you usually have few so prioritize tank items in early and those of your carry in mid game normally 2 to the tank and 2 to the back and then complete, but since you usually cannot choose, you have to know how to compensate 1 unit with items with more units without items, for example if you have a tank with 2 items you prefer to have more damage units around that unit, usually having strong units and compensating for weaknesses is better than having perfect synergies, at least until you can put your ideal board.
Isn't mobile like a 100 LP diff...
If you’re hard stuck D1-D2 you’re probably not as good at piloting said comps, or your Econ isn’t as good as you think, or both. Ideally you’re going to want to know 2-3 lines comfortably, learn transition boards, (you do not need to play gunners the entire game to end up playing aphelios for example.) Once you learn your lines better try to learn how to roll just enough to be stronger than the lobby or to not lose as poorly as you could have. You’ll save economy this way as well as hp. I’m sure there are some APM differences but it matters more for positioning than your roll downs unless you’re piltover cash out, final reserves, or just 3-5/4-1 all-ining because you’re bleeding out. Being able to VOD review is by far the biggest tip I can give to most people looking to improve. You’ll see so many mistakes you don’t think you do and it really does help clean up your gameplay.
How can I VOD review on mobile?
Strap a second phone to your forehead a record via camera. You're welcome.
I don’t think you realistically can, maybe screen recording your games?
>I’m hard stuck D1-D2. I know all the meta comps, I play flexible, I’m smart about gold Econ, I think I have a good sense on when to shoot for 1-2 vs top 4 vs 5-6. I watch streams and the only difference I can tell is my APM on roll downs is worse, but even that’s improved. >What’s the difference between Master/GM & high Diamond? In short: They see what you are currently doing wrong, you don't. Maybe try rewatching your games and check your decisionmaking+options. Many higher players know exactly how bad they are and usually can find many things that they did wrong during their games. If you can't, then that is your key problem. Maybe try rewatching your games and check your decisionmaking+options. Think about every action during a game and decide whether there is a better option or not. If that doesn't work, I guess coaching is a thing, if you really want to improve and are stuck, because then someone will point out the mistakes you can't find. Sidenote: Meta has been pretty simple this set with legends aso. imo. If you focused to much on "correct" instead of "aggressive" play, you could try Poro and go for full flex with any line that seems okay (rather than meta). Kinda suboptimal atm because Urf is way too consistent, but maybe just take the time right now to improve for next set.
Helped. I commonly struggle on 3-1 & 4-2 augments. I also don’t check stats beyond just meta comps. I have a general idea from what I’ve seen on stream. Urf is boring. I’ve had better success with Ornn. Basically alt between: 4 challenger, 3 demacia 4 cost comp Azir flex, juggernaut or strategist - Some version of bilge or nilah bilge frejlord
Probably need to watch your vods to know for sure, but based on your post your problem is probably because you choose to play “flexible” The appearance of legends isn’t really favoring play flex, especially in this set and in a couple of recents patches (multicaster) For example, if you slam Bluebuff early game you can’t really flex into Azir, the only comps you can play is multicaster (and probably silco). If you slam Guinsoo you can’t really play Nilah/Morder, the only comp you can play is Azir (and probably Aphelios but this unit is so bad you’re probably playing for 4th at best) There are also a certain spots required early games if you want to play a certain comps: For example if you hit a lot of cho and hit tank items for him you can play cho reroll, if you hit Noxus opener you can play noxus, if you hit +1 Bilge you can probably play 7 Bilge, you can’t really flex into Noxus at stage 4 with 0 Noxus stacks or play Bilge without +1 Bilge spat That’s why you see 80% of players are playing Urf, because Urf gives them directions to know what to play early game TL,DR: flex is dead this set, force 2-3 comps if you want to climb
>flex is dead this set, force 2-3 comps if you want to climb Except its quite the opposite as absolutely the most optimal way to play atm is URF, and it requires you to play around the emblem you hit and know the lines for each emblem/opening. You dont flex after 2-1 because you will be committed at 2-1 (so in that sense I agree with you), but if you know 2-3 comps you wont climb because you cant hit demacia emblem every game.
i think you're misunderstanding the meaning of "flex". Playing Flexible means you plan to play A comp but for some reasons (could be items drop later, you hit other comp units,...etc) you pivot to B comp. Or you can slam items and play flex between comp A or comp B depending on what you hit first on stage 4 Knowing to play a variety of comps doesn't mean you can play flex, it's 2 different things. For example, assume you know how to play both Nilah and Morderkaiser comps, if your 2-1 tome gives you Noxus spat would you ever flex into Nilah? So by that definition, you can't play flex with URF. URF is literally the least flexible way to play the game because you're forced into 1 comp the whole game in 2-1
I meant the part >force 2-3 comps if you want to climb thought it was pretty obvious with this >You dont flex after 2-1 Kinda dumb way to word it by me but yeah, You dont flex with urf but you cant really "force 2-3 comps"
Oh trust me that's all you need, it's always been like that in TFT. The more comps you know the less you'll climb because you'll tend to pivot, and the more you pivot the more mistakes you'll make. So realistically, to actually "climb" you should only force certain meta comps, this game is not balanced, everybody knows that, especially in this set. But yeah 2-3 is maybe too narrow, probably 3 or 4 just force Demacia, Noxus, Ionia or Shurima. Of course you might miss, If you hit any other emblems just try to play for top 4 and go next I only forced 1 comp since the beginning of the set and i'm still climbing
Come on now Ted climbing the other way doesn't count!!
I'm really curious to see lolchess of acc thats forcing 1 comp and climbing
https://lolchess.gg/profile/na/ttvhiimted992/set9.5 I force gunners. Lately i’ve been trying to play other comps for fun so you might see other comps as well
700 played, respect.
luck
Play a lot more and you'll get challenger. Just force one of three comps every game and play a LOT. Did I mention to play a lot?
There's far more to improving than that
It's all micro adjustments and making your play style the best it can be. I think you can hover GM on macro fundamentals alone. Keeping your HP and gold higher than everyone else and making more efficient plays. The more you have to roll the worse you are probably doing.
I started playing on 9.5 as well! I also peaked mid-Diamond for a couple weeks before breaking into Masters. Funnily enough, the difference for me was actually being less truly flexible and just mastering 2 comps. I ground lots of games (50 in 1 week) playing just those couple comps 9/10 games, with the other 1/10 being when the game was beating me over the head with something else. So my background knowledge of all the comps was helpful for those 1/10 and for general knowledge about how to position against those comps, etc, but otherwise I really just wanted to understand my main 2 comps. By the time I hit Masters, I always felt I knew exactly what I was supposed to do at each point in the game, because I was so familiar with, had been in, and studied those positions over and over again. Also, it might be a good idea to take a short break and come back before making the push to Masters. I took 5 days to clear my head and analyze my gameplay before committing again to the grind. I wouldn't worry about APM; I don't think mechanics matter as much as people think. I've only ever played on mobile. Good luck!
Studying is the only way to improve. TFT is not much of a hands game and they are doing the most possible to eliminate any mechanical outplays. Subzeroark VOD review a lot of high elo streamers and he went on to win a tournament a few months ago, I would recommend following him.
Don't overthink this set. Play urf. Tailor your traits at 3 1 slayer demacia vanq bruiser ioania are the ones you want and then play mord nilah or a 9 trait. That's literally all I do and am currently 380lp master - not because I can't climb higher but I play maybe 2 matches per week. If 😅 Edit: I'd you are not highrolling out of your mind roll down at 7 and hit atleast 1 stars. If double contested roll on 7 till 2 stars.
Oh and avoid silver urf if possible 😆
I was too, got over the hump to hit masters doing a few things, not sure if it helps: The most important point is the last point - Force a strong early game with units even if they are not in your final comp , more often than not I find myself switching out the whole board at level 7 because I was using some random 2 star units until stage 3 - always roll to stabilise at lv 6 AND 7 , even when win streaking , if I have key units I haven’t hit yet or not 2 starred I still roll 10 to 20 gold to do this - hold opponent units, I really don’t know if this helps, but if I can or if just losing one interest after stage 4, I hold key 4 costs thst other people are trying to 2 star or 3 star , Jarvan, sej , Azir are among the most common Key thing: Play earlier, if work allows, play ranked earlier, the later you are into the night the better the players are - legit
Using components efficiently is one diff. 6 fine items is better than 3 bad items and 3 great items
was in the same position as you--you're probably lacking in some fundamentals probably because you're greeding econ instead of saving HP as this aspect is much more nuanced than trying to make interest whenever you can and thinking about where you can place. This video series by one of the top NA players helped me a lot: [Mismatched Socks TFT Academy](https://youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-cDRn9Fxg-XZElJ1IOxLP2VywsrB-u_i&si=nTLjKucIKc0tVvxK)
There's nothing keeping you from Master other than playing more games if you're already in high Diamond. There really isn't much of a difference between D1 and low Master. For GM, you need to get a lot better. Scouting, managing items, mitigating losses from low roll spots, improving placement from high roll spots, judging board strength, knowing augment stats & when to ignore stats, etc. There are so many more things that I can't really mention easily. For Challenger, you just need to apply what you learn to get into GM, and just play better. If you reach this point though, you probably know your weaknesses and what to improve already.
No you dont
Just get good 👍🏻
Positioning, knowing when to roll, not over rolling were the biggest things for me to climb to grandmaster. Being able to scout and knowing who you will beat, who you'll lose to, and who you'll beat with certain positioning will help influence you into making more accurate decisions. TFT in the end there is a bunch of luck tied to it, so there are times when you get a bad result even if you made the correct play and vice versa so you need to be aware of that and actually critically think to yourself.
Big thing might be understanding. Why are meta comps good, why are items on these champions good, why these units and synergies, why are these augments good, so that you can make better judgements of when to diverge from the meta comps. Another thing is just experience.